[Superstitions regarding the “Bisayan” bean.] Huc also ("Thibet,” I. 252) commends the expressed juice of the kouo-kouo (Faba Ign. amar.) both for internal and external use, and remarks that it plays a great part in Chinese medicine, no apothecary’s shop being without it.  Formerly the poisonous drug was considered a charm, as it is still by many.  Father Camel [185] states that the Catbalogan or Bisayan-bean, which the Indians call Igasur or Mananaog (the victorious), was generally worn as an amulet round the neck, being a preservative against poison, contagion, magic, and philtres, so potent, indeed, that the Devil in propia persona could not harm the wearer.  Especially efficacious is it against a poison communicated by breathing upon one, for not only does it protect the wearer, but it kills the individual who wishes to poison him.  Camel further mentions a series of miracles which superstition ascribed to the Ignatius bean.

[Coconuts.] On the southern half of the eastern border, on the shore from Borongan by Lauang as far as Guiuan, there are considerable plantations of cocos, which are most imperfectly applied to the production of oil.  From Borongan and its visitas twelve thousand pitchers of coconut oil are yearly exported to Manila, and the nuts consumed by men and pigs would suffice for at least eight thousand pitchers.  As a thousand nuts yield eight pitchers and a half, the vicinity of Borongan alone yields annually six million nuts; for which, assuming the average produce at fifty nuts, one hundred-twenty thousand fullbearing palms are required.  The statement that their number in the above-mentioned district amounts to several millions must be an exaggeration.

[Getting coco oil.] The oil is obtained in a very rude manner.  The kernel is rasped out of the woody shell of the nut on rough boards, and left to rot; and a few boats in a state of decay, elevated on posts in the open air, serve as reservoirs, the oil dropping through their crevices into pitchers placed underneath; and finally the boards are subjected to pressure.  This operation, which requires several months for its completion, yields such a bad, dark-brown, and viscid product that the pitcher fetches only two dollars and a quarter in Manila, while a superior oil costs six dollars. [186]

[Oil factory.] Recently a young Spaniard has erected a factory in Borongan for the better preparation of oil.  A winch, turned by two carabaos, sets a number of rasps in motion by means of toothed wheels and leather straps.  They are somewhat like a gimlet in form, and consist of five iron plates, with dentated edges, which are placed radiating on the end of an iron rod, and close together, forming a blunt point towards the front.  The other end of the rod passes through the center of a disk, which communicates the rotary motion to it, and projects beyond it.  The workman, taking a divided coconut in his two hands, holds its interior arch, which contains the oil-bearing